The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 11, 2002
Filed:
Jan. 27, 1998
Subramanian Venkatkrishnan, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Tho L. La, San Jose, CA (US);
Pei-Yuan Gao, San Jose, CA (US);
Richard Lamm, Union City, CA (US);
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Abstract
A method of decorating a semiconductor substrate with an etchant solution is provided for revealing defects, such as microscratches, resulting from an oxide chemical-mechanical planarization (CMP) polishing. An oxide layer is provided over the substrate made from, for example, tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS). The oxide layer is polished by a CMP process which tends to leave behind microscratches and other defects that can cause conductivity problems on the wafer. To reveal the microscratches, the wafer is decorated or submerged in an etchant, such as an HF etchant, for a period of time. Following the decorating, the wafer is rinsed, dried and inspected. The method improves the ability to identify and optimize steps in a semiconductor fabrication process that cause semiconductor defects.